


Of Things Long Past and Comfort Anew

by 10MonthDay (AwwKeyboardNo)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, LGBTQ Themes, Not Beta Read, Past One-Sided Crush, Post-Episode: s03e18-21 Sozin's Comet, Sleepy Cuddles, kind of, oogies, the gaang is there but not very much, this is 99 percent cuddling and 1 percent plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-06 14:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12213030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwwKeyboardNo/pseuds/10MonthDay
Summary: "I used to have a big crush on Kuzon."





	Of Things Long Past and Comfort Anew

**Author's Note:**

> This is a mess, but the Korra comics made me very happy with the whole Air nomads being cool about being Not Straight and stuff. So, because I'm bi as hell and I love kataang, have this.
> 
> (someone should write supportive dad aang w/ kya bc i am Bad at avatar fic but i desperately want it)

“I used to have a big crush on Kuzon,” Aang says to Katara one day, three months into their relationship. They are alone, sitting on the roof of the Jasmine Dragon, hand in hand. “Sometimes, I would daydreamed about holding his hand like this.”

Katara looks at him, eyebrows raised and eyes a little wide.

Aang is usually a little vague about the friends he’d once had and lost. Though she is still unsure if it’s due to grief or because he doesn’t want the friends he has now to feel like replacements. She imagines it’s some combination of the two. She’d been hoping he might broach the subject with her at one point. However, when she had thought about Aang actually speaking up about them, this wasn’t exactly what she’d had in mind.

Aang shifts and Katara knows she’s been silent for just a bit too long. His palm is sweaty in her hand. She looks at his anxious face and doesn’t pull away.

“Did you ever tell him?” is what she finally says, and something in his face seems to loosen in relief even as it tightens in sadness.

He shakes his head. “I thought about it sometimes, but I never did. Didn’t dare.” His eyes are big and sad and her grip on his hand tightens. “I--I was ignorant to a lot of stuff back then, but I knew the other nations weren’t….didn’t think like us--the air nomads I mean, when it came to love….and I knew it was especially so in the fire nation.”

“You miss him,” she says gently, and it’s not a question, but he nods in answer anyhow. She pulls him into a soft hug and he automatically curls around her. It’s a familiar thing by this point in their relationship, cuddling, and it's a comfort. She runs a hand over his head. “Sweetie, you know, it’s okay to grieve.”

They lay in silence while Aang allows himself to mourn. While he does so, Katara turns the information over in her head. The secret that her boyfriend has trusted to her.l

Something warm and full of love settles in her chest. As his quiet sobs start to subside, she presses a kiss to his temple. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”

He sniffles, giving her a wavery smile from where his head lay in the crook of her arm. “You’re the first person I’ve told in a hundred years.” It’s meant to be a joke, she _knows_ it is and so she laughs.

It’s watery and more than a bit half-hearted.

“You know I love you, right?” he says quietly, after they spend a few more moments cuddling together. There is a little bit of the worry from the beginning of their conversation lingering in his voice. “I’ve adored you since the moment I opened my eyes.” Katara pulls him to her even tighter.

“I’d never doubt it,” she tells him, firm but warm. “I love you too.”

Aang gives her a smile, radiant but exhausted from the emotional conversation. He blinks a couple times, settling a little against her. He stifles a yawn.

“Go to sleep Aang,” she tells him, her voice gentle. “I’ll be with you when you wake.”

“Promise?” he mumbles, lids already closing around trusting eyes.

She presses another kiss to his head. “Promise,” she murmurs into his skin.

Then her boyfriend is out like a snuffed candle, snoring quietly.

After a couple minutes spent simply watching him sleep, Katara gathers him together and stands. She gets off the roof with finesse gained from dating (and training with) an airbender. Katara carries him into the living area, where Sokka and Suki are lounging together with a book.

Sokka raises an eyebrow. “He okay?”

Katara smiles. “Yeah, I think he is. Just a little tired.” At the look on her brother’s face she scowled at him. “Not like _that_ \--not that it’d be any of your business if it _had_ been--we were just talking.”

He settles back down into the couch, looking vaguely grumpy. Suki gives Katara an apologetic grin.

Once in the sleeping quarters, she sets him into to bed, moving to tuck the blanket around him.

His sleep-clumsy hand grapples at her wrist. “Stay?”

She doesn’t put up a fight, instead sliding under the covers beside him and tucking herself behind him. She presses a kiss to the back of his neck. “For forever,” she promises, before succumbing to sleep herself.

\----

He’s warm and unbelievably comfortable. So much so that he doesn’t want to open his eyes. There’s a pleasant weight draped across his back and he thinks if he shift then it will move too. Still, he blinks a few times and breathes in, recognizing the wonderfully safe scent of his girlfriend. He smiles blearily, considering going back to sleep, when she speaks.

“G’mornin,” she says, warm breath puffing on his neck, and _oh,_ how Aang _loves_ her. He says as much. “Love you too. You sleep okay?”

“Yeah. I think that was the best sleep I’ve had in a long, long time.” He still hasn’t moved. He doesn’t really want to.

Katara hugs him to her. “So, you wanna get up and get breakfast or go back to sleep? I'm pretty sure I heard the others in the kitchen.”

The others.

Aang blinks, once, twice, three times, and gulps. “Sokka’s gonna kill me,” he says blankly.

“He won’t get a chance,” Katara snorts. “If he tries anything I’ll get Suki and she and I will gang up on him.”

Aang opens his mouth to protest and closes it again. “Kay.” He shrugs and then yawns, the hinge of his jaw creaking.

She pulls him back into the cuddle they'd been in before. “It’s still early and there's no plans for today, let's go ahead and sleep for little longer.”

With her arms around him, it's easy to agree.

\------

 _She’s on a mountaintop when she opens her eyes. It’s dark, but the air is pleasant and warm, and she knows somehow that she is in the Fire Nation.  Behind her rests the mouth of a cave, wherein she can see the tip of a dragon’s snout. It’s snoring gently. Well, as gently as any dragon_ can.

_She thinks she should be afraid._

_She isn’t._

_Instead, Katara walks forward and sits beside it--_ her _, the dragon is a her, though she has no idea how she knows. With a gentle hand, she strokes the light green scales of its face._

_The Dragon opens one eye to look at her. After a single moment of consideration she puffs out a smoky sigh and allows the waterbender to keep petting, closing her eye again._

_“She does not let many approach her like that,” voice says. Katara looks up. There is a man about her father’s age smiling down at her kindly. His eyes are golden and twinkling. “She must sense your good heart.”_

_Katara wonders if she knows this man. He is unfamiliar in appearance, but there is something in the look about his eyes that she thinks she’s seen before. He sits beside her and the dragon._

_“I owe you my sincerest thanks, my dear,” the man says. He reaches up to pat the dragon on the snout and the gentle beast grunts in contentment._

_“Why?” Katara can’t help but ask._

_“You took care of my best friend once I couldn’t any longer.” He smiles but his eyes are sad. “And you have loved him more deeply than I ever dared to.”_

_“You’re Kuzon.” As recognition alights in her, she feels the slightest pang of anger and jealousy. Here sat the man who knew Aang before grief befell him; before the man’s country tore Aang’s people and the world apart. Here was the man who had held Aang heart and had done nothing with it. Almost instantly, however, Katara stomps down the feelings, guilty._

_“You have every right to feel the way you do,” Kuzon says, and sorrow bends his shoulders until he is slouching. It makes him look twice as old. “Aang has not had a peaceful life. I could have helped him in his time of need, and I did not. I did not even tell him that I could have loved him back. I did not dare to, as he did not dare to.”_

_Her anger is gone as quick as it came. “He misses you,” she tells him. The man’s eyes shut around tears, but he is smiling again._

_“As I miss him, and as I have for the past one hundred years.”_

_As she takes in his salt-and-pepper hair and the faint wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, Katara feels sadness drop like a stone in her stomach. “You didn’t live long after Aang disappeared.” He could not be more than forty._

_His smile took on a bitter twist. “My Commander did not appreciate my helping of the air nomad refugees who escaped the initial slaughter.  I was eventually caught and executed. Those I had helped were tracked down and murdered as well. I am known in the fire nation as a traitor to my people.”_

_Angry tears on the behalf of Aang’s people and Kuzon flood her eyes, and Katara speaks. “I can talk to Zuko--the firelord--I can have him tell your people the truth.”_

_Kuzon shakes his head, chuckling, the bitterness lost. “You are kind, child, but I have long since lost the wish for that to happen. You don’t need to try.”_

_“I’m going to anyway--if not for you, then for Aang. He wouldn’t want any of the people he loves to be slandered.”_

_Kuzon does not argue. Instead he looks to the sky and smiles. Dawn is beginning to break. “You are waking up.” He stands and holds out a hand to her. She takes it and gets to her feet. Inexplicably, she feels tired, like she is beginning to fall asleep, rather than waking._

_“I’ll tell Aang--” she breaks off, because she does not know_ what _she will be telling her boyfriend._

_“Tell him I am sorry, for not doing enough. Tell him to forgive himself, for I have never blamed him in the least,” Kuzon says seriously, before he smiles widely. “And tell him that Mother Dragon says hello.”_

_\------_

Katara opens her eyes and sits up carefully, aware of the warm body curled up next to her. Sunlight is streaming in through the window on the far wall. It’s early morning still. Though she and Aang fell asleep early in the evening, they slept longer than Katara ever has.

She smiles down at her sleeping boyfriend and runs a loving hand along his shoulders. He stirs but doesn’t wake. He turns over instead, facing towards her and smiling in his sleep. He mumbles her name.

She well remembers her dream--though she doubts it was _just_ a dream. She wonders if she should wake Aang to tell him about it.

She decides to wait. Instead, Katara leans back on the bed to wait for him to wake up. He curls into her, and he is pleasantly warm. Katara wraps an arm around him, guiding him with gentle hands to lean against her. He doesn’t stir, except to close a hand in the folds of her sleeve.

If there is a better way to spend a morning, she has yet to find it.

\-----

Aang wakes. It is not a slow waking, like the earlier part of the morning, but abrupt. He blinks once and takes stock of what is around him. The sunlight is streaming in. It is noontime at the earliest. The bed is warm and comfortable under him, and he has somehow come to be laying against Katara. His head is pillowed by her stomach and he is clutching at one of her sleeves.

Aang sits up and smiles at her, though he is blushing more than a little. Her eyes, bright blue and awake, are twinkling at him. Katara is grinning back at him. “Good afternoon,” she says, brightness in her voice and eyes.

“How long have you been up?” he asks, stretching his arms out--he is half aware of her eyeing him as he does so. Aang doesn’t mind in the least.

Katara shrugs, still smiling. She does her own stretching and stands to her feet. “It doesn’t matter, I was fine. Like I said this morning, there's nothing either of us needs to be doing today. You've been working so hard. You've been working _yourself_ so hard."

He follows her out of the bed. "M'kay. Thank you for letting me sleep then."

“Let’s see about some food,” Katara suggests and Aang nods.

The two of them make their way to the kitchen. The rest of their group sit hodge-podge around the room--wherever there’s space. The moment Aang and Katara enter the room, Sokka’s disapproving stare bores into them.

“And what time do you call this?” he says, wagging a finger at the both of them.

The remaining members of the Gaang look on, half in exasperation and half in interest.

“It’s called lunchtime Sokka, I would’ve thought you’d heard about it!” Katara’s tone is saccharine but she is glaring down her nose at him. Her eyes are challenging him to say something, anything.

Sokka isn’t looking at her, however. He’s frowning at Aang. Aang is beginning to look guilty, though he’d done nothing wrong to garner the older boy’s scowl. “There’d better not be a hair out of place, flyboy. If you tou--”

“Stop it Sokka,” Katara snaps, putting an arm around her reddening boyfriend. “All we did was sleep.”

“She’s right,” Toph puts in casually. “Though they were close enough to be a single person, the only thing that happened last night is that I figured out Aang is the little spoon.”

Aang, not the least bit embarrassed by _that_ information, smiles apologetically at Sokka. “I was talking to her about--um…. _past_ stuff and I fell asleep. I haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

That he hasn’t been sleeping well because of nightmare goes unsaid. Everyone in the group has their fair share of unsettled ghosts. Sokka looks slightly appeased and goes back to the bowl of food he’d been eating before the couple came in.

Katara abruptly snaps her fingers after Aang has spoken. “Oh! That reminds me, I need to tell you something later.”

The look Aang gives her is one of pure confusion, but he shrugs and smiles at her anyway. “Sure, after lunch, yeah?” He goes to put together food for the both of them. Someone must have cooked earlier, and thus, he’s quick to bring a plate to Katara and sit down beside her.

“And why can’t you tell him now?” Sokka asks.

“Because it’s none of your business, nosy,” Katara counters, crossing her arms.

“Well, I--”

“It’s okay Katara, I don’t mind,” Aang says, giving her a half there smile.

“Liar,” Toph says under her breath. Aang ignores her.

“You can tell me here.”

Katara grimaces and her eyes are apologetic. She huffs out a sigh and speaks. “I spoke to Kuzon.”

Aang chokes on his food. “ _What_?” he gets out, after coughing for several moments. For half of a half of a moment, he thinks she might be making fun of him. He shakes the thought away.

“He visited me in my mind, while I was sleeping,” she elaborates. “We talked for a while and he told me to tell you some things.”

Anticipation and worry squirm inside his stomach and he sets down his food, suddenly a little nauseous. “What did he want to tell me?”

“He says he’s sorry, for not doing enough, firstly,” she says.

Sorrow blooms in his throat. “What could he have done?” he asks. “He was younger than me when I was frozen--they would have hurt him, _killed_ him if he--” He observes the pained grimace on Katara’s face. “They _did_ kill him.”

“I asked him about it. He said he would help air nation refugees to escape. Eventually though, the fire nation must have caught onto what he was doing and….they--He barely looked older than my dad.”

“Does that mean there _are_ still airbenders out there?” Suki cuts in curiously.

Katara opens her mouth, but Aang beats her to the punch. His face is scrunched in raw grief. “No. Any of the nomads who escaped were eventually lured out by traps and killed.”

Katara nods in sad agreement. “Kuzon also told me to tell you to forgive yourself. He’s never blamed you.”

Aang blanches, but bites back on his protests. He closes his eyes for a moment to center himself, and then speaks. “Did he say anything else?”

“Yeah, he did actually,” Katara says. There is a smile in her tone now, oddly. Aang opens his eyes again to stare. “He said that Mother Dragon says hello.”

Aang blinks….blinks again. Opens his mouth and closes it. Then, finally, he lets out a peal of laughter. “He partnered with our dragon friend,” he says, his melancholy giving way to delight. He turns to look at Zuko, who has been observing this entire exchange with one eyebrow raised. “I told you that story when we were training, remember? We saved a dragon’s egg from some poachers and the mother decided she liked us well enough not to eat us! I guess he must’ve gone back to see her after I left.” He leans over and presses a kiss to Katara’s cheek. “Thank you for telling me this sweetie.”

She moves as if to kiss his cheek as well, but turns to whisper in his ear. “There’s more to say, but I’ll wait until later to tell you. I’m sorry I brought it up here.” Then she kisses his ear and pulls away. Aang smiles at her, trying to show her that she’s blameless (and he is, perhaps, maybe, blushing about the kiss on the ear).

Sokka makes an over exaggerated gagging sound. “You guys are _gross_.”

“ _Double-standard_ ,” Toph coughs. The older boy scowls at her, but keeps his mouth shut. She is bound to have good dirt on him.

The rest of the meal is companionable, the murmuring of the group familiar and easy. Aang and Katara sit against each other, sharing in the atmosphere, but Aang doesn’t contribute to whatever conversation his girlfriend is having with Zuko. He’s mulling over her dream instead.

Part of him is more than a little jealous, that Katara got to see Kuzon and Aang didn’t. But he knows there has to be a good reason for it. In any case, it would be beyond foolish to blame his girlfriend.

Once the meal is done with, Katara holds out a hand to Aang. “Go on a walk with me?” she asks. Aang takes her hand gladly.

Aang loves holding her hand--loves that feeling of connection, of belonging. He loves her with all of his being, and being able to express it with the simple gesture will always mean so much to him.

The streets of Ba Sing Se are as busy as they always are. The din of people haggling in the shops well covers the couple’s own conversation--and, as the novelty of the Avatar being a regular in the great city has worn off, they are, for the most part, left alone.

While Aang and Katara walk, she explains the rest of her dream to him. When she tells him what Kuzon had told her about their feelings for each other, Aang has to fight back tears. A few slip past his guard anyhow.

After that, they put the subject aside to explore later when it isn't so raw.

The couple end up strolling through the zoo that Aang made during their first month in Ba Sing Se. Katara has not yet had occasion to go there and she fairly marvels at it. It has been expanded since the war ended; animals that had been a common sight during their stint in the fire nation mingle with earth kingdom fauna.

Aang walks with Katara until the sun begins to dip low in the sky, all the while holding hands with her. As they begin to meander back, Katara asks Aang something.

“I've been meaning to ask--you said yesterday that the nomads had a different way of viewing love. I have some idea what you meant, but what _were_ those views?”

Aang is not unhappy at the question. It has become less of a hardship to speak of his people without grief, and easiest of all when with her. Indeed, he smiles at her before he speaks. “There’s a certain freedom in airbending--we like to extend that freedom to manners of the heart and mind. We are--” he cringed and coughed before continuing, “--we _were_ , free to follow our own path. Whether that meant loving someone because (or in spite) of their gender or nation, or choosing not to become one with another person at all.” He shrugs, swinging their arms a little. “For instance, gender is not the deciding factor in whom I fall for, whereas Gyatso told me he never felt more than familial love for anyone--though that love was a giving one.” He smiles at the memory of his guardian.

Katara hums in thought. “Makes sense. What about….?” She swallows and blushes. “What about marriage? The Southern Water Tribe has no restrictions on same gender relationships, but there is no marriage ceremony for one between two men or two women.”

“That’s slightly complicated,” Aang says, and his ears burn at the topic. Though he is yet still thirteen, he knows in his heart that he wishes to be with Katara until death. “We didn’t have marriage in the way that the other nations do--there were no big ceremonies or anything like that, but there were small bonding ceremonies, where those who would be bound--regardless of gender or number, gather those they consider family. The couple would join hands and vow to, among other things, never be with another without permission, to never lay a violent hand on the other, and to be together as long as the love lasts.”

Katara stares at him, her face flushed. After a moment she blinks and starts to smile. “I--I actually really like the sound of that,” she says shyly.

Aang blushes in response to her own blush and her words. “I’m glad,” he replies quietly, a small smile adorning his face. He squeezes her hand gently. His mind slips to the future briefly, imagining such a ceremony between the two of them, mixed with what he knows of water tribe weddings. His face burns more and he releases her hand to wrap a cautious arm around her side.

Katara smiles and leans into him as they walk.

The sun has set into the horizon, leaving the sky painted pink and purple, with only the faintest bit of daytime blue remaining. The Jasmine Dragon is within sight now. The lantern outside the shop has been lit for the evening. As the two approach the door, Aang can see Sokka peering from the front window. He can hear the faintest, “ _Oogies_ ,” from that direction. But there is fondness hidden in the word.

Aang smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know where the dream sequence and air marriage customs came from but they're there.
> 
> i hate titles.


End file.
